


territory lines

by thepsychicclam



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-18
Updated: 2013-12-18
Packaged: 2018-01-05 02:41:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1088627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepsychicclam/pseuds/thepsychicclam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After everyone goes off to college, Allison is left behind in Beacon Hills.</p>
            </blockquote>





	territory lines

**Author's Note:**

> for [hannanimal](http://hannanimal.tumblr.com/), who requested some derek/allison. this was supposed to be a drabble, but my love for derek/allison got carried away.

Allison knows that Derek needs the distraction. He needs to feel like he’s protecting the territory, has been reclaiming ever it since Scott went away to college. Derek hasn’t been passive since Scott became Alpha, but he’s stayed out of the way, faded into the background while Scott dealt with things on the frontlines. Derek’s been working through his network of contacts, making alliances with other Packs that wouldn’t have honored Scott’s role as an Alpha otherwise because of the circumstances. Derek’s been making sure Scott succeeded.

Allison was going to go to college, but she just never seemed to have the time to plan. By the time she graduated, she had nearly perfect grades, but zero extracurricular activities (unless you count hunting and killing supernatural creatures), and while all her friends were filling out applications and writing admissions essays, Allison and her father were trying to repair the Argent name, keep their status as hunters, and prove themselves even though they had aligned themselves with werewolves.

In other words, Allison had bigger problems to worry about.

So, she worked at the local sporting goods store, helped out with her dad’s business, and hunted. There was never much of a choice, anyway.

“Did you hear that?” Derek asks, looking more animal than human as he scans the woods. Allison’s fingers tighten around her knife, her bow draped securely over her shoulder.

“This is the territory line,” she says. “It could be anything.”

Derek stands stock still for a long time, listening and watching. Allison’s eyes can’t see anything in the dark, or at least not what Derek’s can, so soon her eyes drift to him instead. She takes in the slope of his broad shoulders, the way his Henley pulls tight around the muscles in his arms and back, the long line of his legs.

She’d never given Derek much thought after she stopped blaming and hating him for her mother’s death, and it feels odd to be looking at him as anything other than a monster now.

She shakes it off and turns to go. 

“Where are you going?” Derek asks her.

“Home. I’m cold and tired and have to be at work in the morning. There’s nothing out here; we can patrol again in a few days if you want.”

She leaves him standing at the border, staring off into the darkness like he expects someone to attack any minute. Maybe he’s being smart, but sometimes Allison just gets tired of standing around waiting for something to attack.

*

Allison is stocking the fishing lures when she feels a presence behind her. Since she knows the odds of being attacked in broad daylight in the middle of a sporting goods store is low, she squashes her instincts and turns around. 

Derek’s standing there, looking right at home but somehow still awkward.

“Hey Derek,” Allison says, pushing herself up. “What can I help you with?” She holds up the fishing lure in her hand. “Planning on going fishing?”

He smiles. It’s small, but Allison’s not sure she’s ever seen him genuinely smile – the twisted smirks in the heat of battle don’t count.

“I like to fish,” he replies, though the words seem like they pain him. Allison tilts her head and looks at him more closely. She’s never really given any thought to him, but she wonders if he ever talks to anyone. He used to talk to Scott occasionally, and Stiles, but after Erica and Boyd died and Isaac joined Scott, Derek spent most of his time alone.

“I like to fish, too,” Allison says. “My grandfather – not, um, _him_ , but my mom’s dad – used to take me. He was a hunter, too, but my dad told me he was the kindest man he ever met, even for a hunter.” Derek just stares at her, and Allison feels herself blush. “I don’t know why I just told you that.” She runs a hand through her curls awkwardly as she walks to the cash register. “Did you need to buy something?”

“The perimeter is secure,” Derek tells her. “I don’t think you need to worry about it unless something tries to breach it, but I don’t think that should happen. The alliances I’ve set up with neighboring Packs should keep us pretty protected.”

“Yeah, that’s great,” Allison says. “I’ll tell my dad.”

Derek gives her a curt nod and then leaves the store.

*

Allison misses her friends. There’s no one left in Beacon Hills, or even close enough to drive to see for the weekend. Lydia, Stiles, and Danny are clear across the country, Isaac’s in Chicago, and Scott’s in LA. She guesses she could make the ten hour drive, but she doesn’t want to give Scott the wrong idea. Plus, he’s dating that new girl, and overall, going to see Scott is a bad idea.

So, Allison ends up at the movies by herself. Her dad is off doing whatever it is he does, and Allison just needs to get out of the house and do something that isn’t working or running. 

She buys herself a soda and walks into the theater twenty minutes before the show starts. There’s only one other person in the theater, and as she ascends the stairs, she realizes it’s Derek. He doesn’t turn towards her or acknowledge her presence, and she wonders if it would be more awkward to sit with him or ignore him completely in an otherwise empty theater.

Allison’s sense of politeness and her overwhelming loneliness has her moving down the aisle of seats towards Derek. He finally turns to look at her, and she can’t tell if he’s happy to see her or not.

“Hey,” Allison says, smiling. “Um, would it be weird if I sat with you?” Derek shakes his head, and she takes the seat on his left. “You like to see movies by yourself?” 

Derek glances at her out of the corner of his eyes. “No one to see them with.”

“Oh,” she says, feeling her cheeks flush in embarrassment. “I didn’t mean – “

“It’s okay,” he cuts in. “I generally prefer to be alone.”

She starts to get up. “I can go and sit somewhere else.”

Derek reaches out and grabs her wrist gently, and Allison can’t ignore the spark she feels from his touch. “That’s not what I meant.”

Allison sits back down awkwardly. They sit in silence for a few moments as the pre-show plays across the screen. Finally, Allison can’t take the tension and turns to Derek. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. Honestly, I didn’t know if I should have ignored you or come up here and said hello.”

Derek looks at her, his expression soft. It takes Allison off-guard. “I’m glad you sat down.” 

“Okay,” she says, smiling. He wordlessly offers her his Twizzlers, and she ignores the flutter in her stomach.

*

“Do you want to grab some dinner?” Allison asks as they walk out of the movie theater. “We can discuss how terrible that movie was.”

“I think you did that enough during it,” Derek responds. Allison’s about to apologize, but when she turns to Derek, she sees him smirking. 

Allison laughs and bumps his shoulder gently. “Will wonders never cease? Derek Hale made a joke.”

“It is known to happen occasionally.”

Allison starts walking towards the restaurant on the corner, and Derek follows. It feels good to have someone beside her, someone to talk to. 

*

A few days later, Derek comes into the store again. He finds Allison counting inventory in shoes. “Hey,” he says.

“Derek, hi!” she says a bit too enthusiastically, and she feels herself blush. “What are you doing here?”

“When do you get off?” 

The question surprises her, and she pulls her phone out of her pocket to check the time. “About two hours, why?”

“I found something while on patrol in the Preserve this morning,” he says. 

“Oh,” she says, disappointed. She quickly recovers. “Yeah, sure. I’ll meet you at the Preserve after I get off.”

After he leaves, she tries not to spend the next two hours thinking about how much of an idiot she was for wanting Derek to be there for another reason.

*

Derek’s already waiting for her when she pulls up to the Preserve. He’s leaning against the Camaro in his leather jacket, his arms crossed over his chest. She’d gone home after work and changed into something more suitable for hunting and grabbed her crossbow.

He doesn’t say anything as he leads her into the woods. They walk in silence the whole way, the air awkward and full of tension. Allison’s trying to keep her mind on her duties, and not on the way Derek’s ass looks in those jeans.

“Here,” Derek says when they get to the edge of the Beacon Hills territory. There are three deer carcasses and the bones of small rodents. 

“Is it an animal? A werewolf?” Allison asks as she squats down and inspects the remains. 

“I can’t get a good scent,” Derek says. “I don’t know if that’s deliberate or not.”

“Do you think it’s anything to worry about?” she asks as she straightens back up. “It could be a mountain lion or a bear.”

Derek nods. “I think that’s a possibility. Tell your dad to be on the lookout. I don’t think we should tell the sheriff yet, just in case it turns out to be nothing.”

Allison nods. “Okay.”

*

Turns out, it wasn’t nothing. It was a rogue shapeshifter from the mountains that Allison is currently running from. That thing was _fast_ , too. She doesn’t know where Derek is, because they’d gotten separated just moments before.

Allison leaps over a log and then locks an arrow into her crossbow. She spins around and pauses just long enough to loose the arrow. It grazes the creature’s shoulder, but it doesn’t slow. Allison takes off running again, and trips over an exposed root obscured by leaves.

The shifter immediately leaps for her, and she rolls out of the way just in time. She grabs her knife and stabs it in the shoulder as his nails scratch her thigh. She doesn’t cry out as she sinks her knife into him again.

In the next moment, the shifter is knocked several feet away with Derek on top of him, fully wolfed out. It only takes Derek a few moments to finish what Allison had started, and Allison jumps to her feet, ignoring the pain in her leg, as she scans her surroundings.

Derek comes up beside her, blood smeared around his mouth and splattered on his shirt. He’s still wolfed out, his blue eyes bright in the dark forest as he glances around. “That’s it,” he says. 

“What took you so long?” Allison snaps, the adrenaline fading and causing her leg to throb. 

“There was another one,” Derek says, his face shifting back to normal, but his eyes still burning. “I thought you could handle this one.”

“I could,” Allison says defensively. “I was handling it. I almost had him.”

“I didn’t say you didn’t,” Derek replies. “How’s your leg?” He drops to his knees and touches around the torn fabric carefully. “It’s not too deep.”

“Good,” Allison says wearily. “The last thing I need is to go to the hospital and have Melissa find out and tell Scott.”

Derek stands up. He starts walking away without offering her any help; she appreciates that he doesn’t treat her any differently than any other member of his Pack.

*

Derek shows up at her apartment later that night. He nearly scares her to death when he suddenly appears in her bathroom doorway, making her emit an embarrassing screech. Allison’s sitting on the closed lid of the toilet, freshly showered and attending to her leg.

“I’d appreciate it if you’d keep that little embarrassing sound I just made to yourself,” Allison says as Derek comes inside the bathroom to lean against the counter. “How did you get in?”

“Window on the fire escape,” Derek says. “You should really put some mountain ash or something across the sill.”

“Then how would you be able to break into my apartment?” she asks with a smirk. He raises an eyebrow and glances down at her leg.

“It’s worse than I thought.”

“It’s fine,” she shakes her head as she goes back to stitching herself up. Her hands are shaking with the adrenaline crash and resulting exhaustion. Derek crouches down in front of her and covers her shaking hand with his own.

“Let me,” he says gently.

“I can do it,” she snaps, yanking her hand away from his. 

Derek scowls and rests his hands lightly on her knees. “I know you can, Allison. I’m not questioning your strength.”

Allison hears her mother’s voice in her head, and she battles with herself as Derek patiently waits for her to decide. His hands are large and warm on her knees, and she finds comfort in the weight of them on her skin.

Finally, she hands the needle over to Derek. He squeezes her knee lightly as he takes it from her, and she feels the heat of his touch all the way to her toes.

“Tell me about fishing with your grandfather,” he says. She’s so surprised at the question that she doesn’t feel when the needle pierces her skin.

“Nice distraction technique,” Allison says as he Derek carefully begins to sew up her wounds.

He smiles as he concentrates. “I’m serious. I want to know.”

“He had a boat,” Allison starts, “and he’d take me into the river. He always said river fishing was more fun than lake fishing because each catch was more exciting since people didn’t stock rivers.” She laughs at the memory. “My dad told me that he wasn’t like most hunters. He said once, he protected two werewolf cubs from a rabid omega.” Derek’s eyes lift, his brow furrowed in confusion. “Dad said my grandfather said he couldn’t let two innocent children die just because they were werewolves. He said that went against our code.”

Derek turns his attention back to Allison’s leg. “Sounds like a good man.”

“He was,” Allison says. “Mom and Dad never wanted to be like…Gerard,” she says quietly. “That’s why we moved away. I think between Gerard’s poison, and her desire to keep me safe, my mom went a little overboard. She always said there was nothing more important than me.”

Derek doesn’t look at her, but Allison feels the gravity of the moment, the weight of sharing something so difficult with Derek. She doesn’t like talking about her mom, and she’s not exactly sure why she did so just now.

They’re quiet as Derek finishes the last few stitches. The lines are precise and perfect, and she barely felt him working on her.

“You’ll have a scar,” he says as he stands up to put away the supplies and wash his hands. “But it shouldn’t be that bad.”

“It’ll just match all the others,” Allison says. Derek locks eyes with her in the bathroom mirror, and Allison feels overwhelmed. She steps up behind him and places a hand on his back. “Thank you.” 

He turns off the water and dries his hands on the nearby towel. “You’re welcome,” he says as he turns around. She doesn’t back away, so he reaches out and cups her cheeks with his hands. Tentatively, he leans forward and kisses her.

Surging up on her toes, Allison wraps her arms around Derek’s neck and kisses him deeper. Allison wraps her legs around Derek’s waist when he lifts her, and he carries her over to the couch, his mouth never leaving hers. 

When he sits on the couch, she shifts in his lap and runs her hands through his hair, breathing against his mouth, “Stay with me.”

He whispers, “okay,” into her hair.

-fin


End file.
